reversing bends in sheet metal

[jschoenfelder]

My company makes prison doors and frames using Inventor 2018 for alot of our parts. We are very custom so alot of pieces are unique. We deal with LH and RH. A lot the time we have two drawings of the same piece that are formed opposite directions. Some of these pieces will have up to eight bends on them. I know that a flange can be reversed as it it added to a piece, however I am wondering if a piece can be completely reversed in a single action. When you finish the piece, you create a flat pattern and Inventor flattens it, so it know how to reform. Can it change directions of the forming from flat?  I have attached a PDF to give you a idea of one piece. Thank you for any help you can provide!!!

[Anonymous]

On the model you can set the face of the object to change the bend table direction. Caution of course doing this as you may set the model/drawing to the similar up/down setting. I always check the flat pattern on the drawing first for the up/down notations to see which side of my material is the materials up/down markings.Initial drawing creation. Down Bends. Automatically faces one of the faces on the box. in this case the top is notated from the drawing (hand set)Remove (delete) the flat pattern.Remove (delete) the flat pattern.Define the underside (or opposite side of the original drawing as the face) of this ex. Use the button up top Define-A-Side.Re-create the flat pattern.Replace the flat pattern and the bends now show up instead of down with the face placed on the underside of the box.

[jschoenfelder]

I failed to say that my need is after i draw the model, i need to copy it and show it as the opposite swing so I want to be able to reverse the flanges of the model itself. I am aware that I can do this one flange at a time but I am wondering if it can be done in a single step.

[BrianEkins]

I'm not certain this is what you're looking for, but here's some VBA code that will flip every flange in a part that's defined using distance extents.  You can copy and paste it into a VBA code window and run it.  It will work on the active document.

Public Sub FlipFlanges()
    Dim partDoc As PartDocument
    Set partDoc = ThisApplication.ActiveDocument
    Dim smComp As SheetMetalComponentDefinition
    Set smComp = partDoc.ComponentDefinition
    
    Dim flange As FlangeFeature
    For Each flange In smComp.Features.FlangeFeatures
        Dim flangeDef As FlangeDefinition
        Set flangeDef = flange.Definition
        
        If TypeOf flangeDef.HeightExtent Is DistanceHeightExtent Then
            Dim extent As DistanceHeightExtent
            Set extent = flangeDef.HeightExtent
            
            If extent.FlangeDirection = kNegativeExtentDirection Then
                extent.FlangeDirection = kPositiveExtentDirection
            Else
                extent.FlangeDirection = kNegativeExtentDirection
            End If
        End If
    Next
End Sub

[Anonymous]

Thanks i do appreciate the commands and will be using this in the future.

however as I'm really bad at coding i just manually enter the bends thru the software itself. as tedious as it may be to click 10 bends I have an easier time with it for now.

[NachoShaw]

maybe im wrong but are you trying to reverse the flanges to make an opposite hand piece? If so, cant you just derive the part as a mirrored part? you can still unfold it once converted as a sheet metal part

thanks

[Anonymous]

It wasn't about changing the bonds to be up or down in this instance. It
was the numbering itself.
I noticed this as I was numbering the item as to show the operator a way to
see the steps (listed thru numbering) on how to bend the part. However if
you accidentally set the numbers and leave the part with two similar
numbers it will continue to have the numbers stay the same unless you clear
the set numbers then redo the process.